I love browsing sites that have information that's only semi-useful. Mainly, I find these articles and pictures I read to be fulfilling my sanity in a different way than academic papers. It's a learning process that goes beyond books and memorization...it's the best kind of learning...learning by pure fascination.
Today, on one of my whimsical floating of the cyber world...I came across an awesome article that profiled a lonely whale. Yes, A LONELY WHALE. It's funny to read the title because I got weird references of dating websites in my mind, and it turns out, that this whale might actually need to enlist the help of a dating site!! (If only it could...)
The whale is named "52 Hertz" because 1. it's gender is unknown 2. it sings all of its whale songs at 51.75 frequency--and we like to round up, since numbers get complicated, the more you add on after a decimal.
This whale has been singing her song (or his song) at least since it was first tracked tracked back in 1989 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Unlike normal whales who are group animals that live in small families or pods and travel together, this whale is rides solo.
It does not want to be solo (unlike the song...riding solo, riding solo--lalala) but there's a fundamental problem that keeps it from conversing with other whale homies. The problem lies in the song, which whales use as a common form of communication. Normal whale songs are set at a frequency of 12-25 Hz...and here, you can tell the major, MAJOR problem!!
What's one to do when you speak, and no one, but perhaps a land dog, can hear you?!? The difference between 52 Hz and 25Hz is quite great...and scientists are still trying to find a reason for this strange phenomenon. A mutation? A new species? Hard to say.
In the mean time...52Hz will keep swimming the ocean, making soundless calls that can't be received by any of its fellow mates. Truly, what is a vast world with no friends or loved ones? It is a sad song to be sung.
<<---If a whale date did occur, this might be how it goes down!! Check out the article yourself, READ HERE!!
